


Accidents Happen

by moviegeek03



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Broken Bones, Domestic Fluff, Hurt TK Strand, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:00:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28783077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moviegeek03/pseuds/moviegeek03
Summary: What was supposed to be an easy night off soon becomes a little complicated. No matter how much he wanted to say he was fine, that it was nothing, the swelling and pain said otherwise. Thankfully Carlos is there and willing to help TK through a minor accident at home.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Comments: 9
Kudos: 181





	Accidents Happen

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like I could say most to all of my stories are Jamie's fault right now lol. But this is also inspired by my own accident a couple months back. So...fun fact. I am the clumsiest person in my own home and have wracked up three injuries so far during the pandemic. One of which (well technically two I guess) is the basis of this story. I basically did exactly what TK does in this story and had a similar reactions as what I wrote for him. Thanks again to Jamie for the encouragement and help 💜

He was exhausted. It had been a long shift. There had been so many calls. So many people needing help. There had been the fire across town. A pile up on the highway. A protests on campus that had turned violent. Hell…even a damn cat up a tree. It had been a day. And he was exhausted…

TK sighed as he walked up Carlos’s porch. It was late. He was supposed to be off hours ago. But…the day had gotten away from him. Things had been chaotic and exhausting. He was so tired. So tired that he had nearly skipped out on going back to Carlos’s place for the afternoon. He was supposed to be here earlier in the day. He had planned to hang out, do some laundry, and wait on Carlos to get off work.

He used the key he had—something that still amazed him— to let himself into the apartment. Carlos was still working his own long, late shift no doubt. TK toed off his shoes at the door, not wanting to track anything into the house. They had both been as careful as they could be. Both knew the risks with working during the pandemic. They did what they could, when they could.

Which speaking of…

TK walked through the house and glanced at the laundry room. There was a pile of uniforms and towels billowing over the hamper. He groaned at the sight; he was supposed to do laundry today. Well, he was supposed to do laundry two hours ago when he was supposed to be off work.

He sighed, running a hand over the back of his head. He gave the pile one last look before deciding to wait. He needed to shower, to rid himself of his uniform and clean up after being out around the public all day. Carlos and him had the agreement…they’d of course continue to see each other and spend as much time as possible together. But, they’d make sure they changed out of work clothes and cleaned up after shifts as soon as possible to try to keep things safe.

Well as safe as they could.

With that thought in mind, TK started to unbutton his shirt and move toward the bathroom. He tugged off his pants and shrugged out of his clothes. He set his phone on the counter and let his clothes fall to the floor. He had maybe thirty minutes before Carlos would be home…plenty of time to shower and sort out the laundry for them both.

He let the water run down his back as his mind wandered to Carlos, to their arrangement. They’d not made any formal steps toward moving in together. But TK found himself spending more nights in the apartment as the shutdowns and quarantines were extended. It had been a crazy couple months, but Carlos had remained a pleasant constant.

With that in mind, he grabbed his body wash and quickly went about cleaning himself off. He wanted to get the laundry in and raid the fridge for dinner options. While he wasn’t much of a cook, he was pretty sure they had some frozen pizzas stashed away or jars of pasta sauce on hand. He could do something. He wanted to make sure Carlos didn’t have to deal with much when he got off.

He shut off the water and quickly toweled off. He left the dirty clothes on the floor while he ran across the hall to the bedroom for some sweats. He had taken to leaving random pieces in Carlos’s closet over the last months.

_It was very domestic…_

TK shook off the thought. They hadn’t really discussed any of it. It just kept…well happening. At first, Carlos had argued that he wanted TK to have a place to go in case things turned bad and he wanted to quarantine away from his dad. None of them knew what to expect, and TK had been beside himself with worries over his father’s health as the news started to ramp up and things continuously changed.

Then…

Well, TK just started to enjoy being there. Being with Carlos so often and being able to just relax at the apartment with him.

So Carlos had given him a key.

A key had turned into a section of the closet for pajamas and spare uniforms.

Which then turned into TK’s body wash and hair products scattered in the bathroom.

And his favorite foods in the kitchen.

_Yeah, it had progressed…_

TK grabbed a pair of joggers and a hoodie from the closet. He slipped them on and did a quick scan of the bedroom for any other discarded and dirty items. He noticed a few of Carlos’s socks near the bed and picked them up. He walked back to the bathroom and grabbed his own items. He knew the rest was already in the laundry room for him. He was thankful Carlos’s building had in unit washer and dryers…it definitely made things easier.

He grabbed his phone in the bathroom and turned on some music before leaving it on the counter. Soft rock soon filled the bathroom.He checked the pockets of his uniform one last time as he started toward the laundry room. He found his AirPods in the front pocket of his pants and shifted them to his hand as he gathered everything. He flicked on the light and stepped into the room.

“Let’s not throw that in the wash,” he sighed as he started to throw everything into the machine. Once his items were in, he grabbed the hamper and dumped the last of the contents in. With it largely being uniforms, he wasn’t worried about sorting things out. It was all basically blue and black anyway…

He added the detergent and turned the knobs to the right settings. He shifted his AirPods case in his hands, careful to not drop it in. Once everything was in the washer, he quickly made his way back out. He kept his AirPods in his right hand as he grabbed hold of the door. He reached up with his left to flick off the light. He didn’t really pay much attention. But as he went to turn the light off and shut the door…his AirPods started to slip from his hand.

In an effort to not drop the case, he didn’t realize the door was already slamming shut.

_Right on his hand…_

Well, more specifically, his middle finger that was stretched out to turn off the light.

_“Fuck!”_

It all happened so fast. Too fast. He felt the door collide with his hand, all but shutting his finger in the doorway. Pain shot through him, screaming up into his arm. He took a shaky breath and tried to ride it out.

_It had to go away._

He took another breath. He felt the panic build. His hand didn’t want to cooperate. It wasn’t bending. At least not the one finger…

He felt the panic start to rise as he took closer look at his hand. It did not look…good. At all. It was red and somehow already swollen.

“How is that even possible,” he groaned to himself. He tried to bend the joint again but both the middle and top knuckle on the digit screamed in pain. He felt tears come up as he tried. It was no use. He had definitely managed to hurt himself…

He sighed and stepped away from the laundry room. He tossed the AirPods case onto the kitchen table and crossed the space to the fridge. He grabbed an ice pack from the freezer and a towel from the drawer. He held his hand close to his chest as he moved around the apartment, afraid he would hit it on something again if he wasn’t careful.

He sank down onto the nearby chair. He then wrapped the towel around the ice pack and gently held it against his hand. It stung and he could already feel his finger going numb from the cold. He cursed under his breath at all of it.

His phone started vibrating down the hall in the bathroom, the sound echoing as it no doubt moved across the counter.

“Shit.” He ran his good hand over his face and let the ice pack fall down onto the table. He ran back to the bathroom for his phone. He saw the screen lit up with a missed call and a few texts.

All from Carlos. He picked up the phone as he still cradled his hand against his chest.

_“Leaving work in a minute. Need anything? I can hit up a drive thru or curbside if we need anything.” - C_

TK bit his lip and shifted anxiously on his feet. He didn’t know what to really say about what had happened. But…he knew he needed to let Carlos know.

He typed up a quick message.

_“Don’t think so. Are you already on your way? I think I just did a dumb thing…” - T_

He regretted the message as soon as he sent it. He reread it and knew that it sounded worse than he had intended. He was trying to be sarcastic and make light of it. But…

Given that his phone was now ringing with an incoming call from his boyfriend.

TK picked it up and hit the speaker. “I’m fine.”

_“Your text says otherwise.”_

“It’s not a big deal,” TK huffed, leaning back against the doorframe of the bathroom. He glanced at his hand. “I don’t think it’s broken.”

_“Broken? You don’t think what is broken, babe? A plate, an appliance…what are we talking about here?”_

TK wanted to smack himself. He knew he wasn’t making much sense. He was just making things worse.

_“Ty? Are you there? What happened? I’m like probably ten minutes out.”_

“I’m okay. It’s not a big deal. I just…I shut part of my hand in the door to the laundry room just now. It’s dumb.” He could feel his face redden as he admitted his clumsy.

_“That sounds really painful.”_

TK laughed dryly as his hand throbbed again. “It’s not great but I really don’t think I broke it.”

_“I’ll be there in ten. We can go to the ER and—“_

“I don’t think I need that. It’s okay. I’m icing it now. It’s fine.”

_“Ty—“_

“Just…let’s not jump to that yet. I’ll keep icing it and you can take a look at it when you get home.”

Carlos sighed on the other end. _“I’ll be there soon.”_

“Thanks. Be careful.”

They hung up and TK brought the phone back into the kitchen. He slumped down into the chair and let his hand fall back onto the ice as he waited. He’d shut his hand in doors before. A probie had slammed a door on the truck on a few fingers years ago in New York. It hurt like hell.

This somehow felt worse.

He didn’t realize he was shutting the door that hard. That his hand was in the way.

He was so lost in thoughts, he didn’t hear the door unlock. He didn’t notice Carlos until the other man had toed off his boots at the door and crossed the space into the kitchen. “TK?”

He looked up. “Hey.” He ran his good hand through his hair. “I didn’t hear you.”

“It’s okay.” Carlos came up behind him, placing a kiss to the top of his head and pulling his hand up from the ice. He inspected the redness and swelling around the middle finger. TK knew his hand shouldn’t already be swelling like that. “This doesn’t look good, babe.”

He sighed. “I know.”

“Can you move it?”

TK tried, but stopped abruptly as it caused a fresh wave of pain. “No…”

Carlos ran a hand across TK’s shoulders. “Can I touch it? I can check if it is out of place at least.”

“Go ahead.” TK let Carlos move his own fingers along the discolored digit. TK sucked in a breathe as Carlos gently prodded the area around the knuckles.

“Sorry, Ty.”

“It’s okay. It just…”

“Hurts?”

TK nodded dejectedly.

“I think it’s broken, babe. It doesn’t feel out of place, but definitely doesn’t look or feel normal. I’m sorry but I’m pretty sure it is broken.”

“Great…”

“Come on. We can get it checked out and —“

“No, Carlos, I’m not going to bother with that.”

“What? You have a broken finger. I think that equals a trip to the ER.”

“Not really,” TK continued, giving Carlos a pleading look. “They don’t really do anything for it.”

“Tyler.”

“Carlos,” he mimicked.

“I’m serious. You can’t just ignore a broken finger!”

“I didn’t say that. But I don’t want to go to the hospital. Not with everything going on.” He waved his good hand around. “The ER’s are slammed right now. You and I both know that. They don’t need to deal with this.” He pointed at the injury. “And I don’t want us to have to deal with going there. We deal with enough exposure as it is.” He gave another pleading look. “I can deal with it at home.”

“And how do you plan to do that?”

“I just need to ice it and maybe splint it.”

“We don’t have any here. Not that I know of. I can run out to the pharmacy.”

“No, you just got home. I don’t want to make you go back out.”

Carlos raised his eyebrows. “You need a splint.”

“I know…” He sighed in frustration.

“I would normally call Michelle, but she’s not in town right now.”

“I know,” TK replied. He rubbed at his forehead. “Besides, she was not happy with having to fix my hand when I cut it a couple months ago and couldn’t get it to stop bleeding.”

“Wait,” Carlos’s eyes widened. “Did you do that to the same finger?”

TK blushed and looked down at the tabletop. “Maybe…”

“Okay, what about Tommy?”

“No, I don’t really know her super well. And don’t want to bother her.”

“Ty…you need help. So give me some options here.”

“I don’t know.” He fidgeted in his seat, anxiety rising again.

“What about your dad?”

“I really don’t want to ask him to go to the pharmacy. He’s been doing pick ups and avoiding stores given everything. I’m trying to help him do that. Not send him out to one.”

Carlos sighed. TK hated how frustrated his boyfriend was no doubt at all this.

“I’m sorry,” TK mumbled.

Carlos softened at that. He pulled out the nearby chair and sat down, leaning forward toward TK. “I’m not mad. Not at you. At everything else…I’m a little frustrated. But not at you. Just trying to figure out an option that will work and that feels safer for you.” He reached over and squeezed TK’s knee. “What about Paul? Didn’t he say he was staying later tonight to disinfect some things at the station? Would a splint like you need be around the station?”

“Maybe.” TK let his hand back down onto the ice, wincing at the cold. “This sucks…”

“I know. It looks like it isn’t pleasant right now.”

TK just shook his head, glaring down at his hand.

“I’ll go call Paul for you.”

“Thanks.” TK looked up and started to stand. “I can start dinner for us and—“

“Ty, just relax.” Carlos waved him back onto the chair. “Let’s get this sorted then I will figure out food for us.”

“I’m not helpless. I can do things.”

“I know you can.” Carlos stood and pressed another kiss to the side of TK’s head. “But…let me help for now. The more you use that hand the more it will swell. And if we can’t get the swelling down, then…”

“We have to go the ER. Got it. Fuck.”

“Basically,” Carlos laughed humorlessly.

TK nodded and sunk further into the chair. Carlos stepped into the living room to call Paul while TK waited. He kept trying to ice his hand. But…icing your fingers was a bitch. He lifted it off the towel. Nothing had really changed. It somehow just felt worse.

“Paul found a new finger splint in the supply cabinets and is going to swing by here soon. He said he’d double check to make sure nothing feels out of line. But, he did agree that going to he doctors was maybe pointless. At least tonight.” Carlos gave him a pointed look. “But if it gets worse—“

“We go to the doctor. I know.”

“Thank you,” Carlos sighed in relief. “We’ll figure it out.”

TK knew they would. He just hated that he had managed to hurt himself so badly. In such a ridiculous way. It seemed so…pathetic.

Yet, he seemed to be the only one to think that. Paul showed not even twenty minutes later. His finger had continued to swell and already looked like bruising was starting to form. He showed with a splint and some medical tape. He agreed with Carlos’s assessment that it was broken, but did not feel out of line.

“Brother, I don’t know how you managed this with a laundry room door,” he sighed as he opened the split and put it around the finger.

“I’m apparently very talented.”

“You need to learn how to use that talent for good. Not this.” Paul waved at his work. “Let me wrap some tape around it and you should be set for the night. Take off the splint and keep some ice on it. Oh,” he reached down and pulled a bottle of Advil from his bag. “Take these. It will help with the swelling if nothing else. Try to keep it above your heart if you can while resting. Which you better be doing tonight…”

“I’ll make sure he does,” Carlos interjected.

“I figured.” Paul stood up and clapped TK on the shoulder. “I’ll leave you guys to it for the night.”

“Can I at least feed you or something? For all the trouble?” TK asked, standing up to pull him in for a hug.

Paul laughed as they parted from the embrace. “No offense, but I think you’ve had enough accidents for the night. I don’t want to add more with you in the kitchen.”

TK made a face at that and started to protest. Carlos interrupted. “I’m fixing food so he doesn’t hit his hand more. Welcome to stay.”

“Nah, I’m going to head out. But thanks, guys.” He poked TK gently in the chest. “Rest. And let the Cap know so you can have a few days off. I know…you’re going to say it is nothing. But, if you want to avoid going to the ER, then you need to take it easy and let it heal a little.”

TK just nodded. “I’ll call him tomorrow. I’m off anyway.”

“Good. Call if you guys need anything.”

“We will,” Carlos answered. “I’ll let you out.” He guided Paul back to the front door, leaving TK alone in the kitchen. Rather than take Paul’s advice, he stood and opened up the fridge to find options for dinner. Not finding anything easy, he moved up to open the freezer. He managed to jab his finger into the handle in the promise. He cursed as the pain hit again.

“Easy.”

Suddenly, Carlos was there, pulling him away and rubbing his back soothingly. He guided TK back to the chair.

“Sorry,” TK sighed after the pain had subsided back to an ache.

“Hey, I meant it earlier. Stop apologize. It’s okay. You didn’t do this on purpose.” Carlos squeezed his good hand. “it’ll be okay. Just let me help you out.” He gave him a kiss. “It doesn’t make you helpless.”

TK softened. “Thank you.” He leaned forward for another kiss. “Love you.”

“Love you too, Ty.” Carlos gave him one final kiss. “So, food?”

“There’s a pizza in the freezer I think.”

“That’ll work. I’ll do a grocery order for us tomorrow and get some things that will be easy for you to deal with one handed too.”

TK groaned at that. “Shit…this is going to be a thing for like the next two months.”

“Hey, we’ll figure it out,” Carlos ensured him with such a genuine look.

TK breathed out. He knew Carlos was right. That this wouldn’t last forever. That it would heal…eventually. Until then, Carlos would be there. TK just had to let him. And maybe, he could do that after all.

Assuming he managed to avoid more accidents in the home...


End file.
